The Guest's Tale
by Lnyarg
Summary: We've all heard of stories where someone has fallen into D. Gray Man. But what about being reborn into D. Gray Man, as a side character who's was destined to die that day. Watch as the drama an folds as a young boy is reborn as none other then Leo, the day of his mother's funeral.
1. The funeral

Death is something cold, too numb and unpleasant for me to like. At least that's what I thought when I believed I was dead. But I haven't really died yet, have I? No in the traditional sense, anyway.

I took my last breath in my old body and woke up inside of some else's. It's hard to put it so bluntly, this is reincarnation we're talking about here. You'd expect it to be dramatic or something. But it was as simple as waking up, getting out of bed and looking in the mirror. Only then finding that I wasn't the same person anymore, I was someone completely different. But it was someone that I did know, however vague that knowledge was.

The worst part wasn't that I knew who it was the minute that I looked into the mirror. The reason was I knew today was the day they were suppose to die. When I'd read about him, I have to admit I was a little bit bored. There just wasn't enough time spent on this kid for me to truly care about this kid. He'd barely had any time spent on him.

I had all the time in the world to care about him now. I was Leo.

If there was a god, he must have hated me. Who brings a person back only to kill them the same day? My mind floated to a certain main character the series was about. That wasn't the same thing though, I'd wanna die if I'd become an akuma. Anyone would rather die than live as an akuma, right?

It was the day of a funeral, of Leo's mother's. Turns out that Leo had an aunt and uncle that he was living with. They were nice, giving me the somber respect of a child who lost an important person in their lives. They didn't ask to much of me, only to get ready for the funeral today.

Once there, I stood around a small group of people. Briefly, I even saw John. But he was standing back, looking unsure of how to deal with the situation. They gave me the place of honor to stand, the front of her grave. Leo's mothers grave. I kept my eyes averted from her name. Doing my best to space out so I wouldn't hear anyone say her name. It needed to be forgotten, for her sake. He needed the name, didn't he?

Leo died the day of his mother's funeral, the Earl had said so himself in the manga. There was no reason to doubt that he was lying, so he was going to appear at some point during or after the funeral. Were they going to leave me alone at her grave?

My thought process seemed to be prophetic today, the funeral rites had concluded. Sure enough, people began to file out of the cemetery and no one beaconed me to come with them. Absentmindedly, I began walking towards Leo's aunt and uncle. The uncle gave me a rude wave of the hand, like I was doing something wrong.

" Pay your respects to her while you can. We'll be moving your things tomorrow, so there won't be time."

And they left me to myself. I saw that even John had been taken by the other people to give me some time buy myself.

I didn't really have the will to explain that I wasn't Leo, that Leo likely was dead now and I had taken his place. But I looked pretty lifeless already. I hadn't spoken, hadn't eaten, hadn't smile, hadn't even looked scared or sad. You'd think I was catatonic or something. However, not really acting like Leo seemed possible given the circumstances.

It became apparent to me that I wasn't scared that I'd be forced to turn Leo's mother into an akuma, it wasn't that I was scared I'd be killed by the Earl. No, I liked this situation. Not once today had anyone ever bugged me to explain how I felt or told me to look on the bright side of things. They didn't expect me to speak or move, because they though I was traumatized by my mothers death.

I was left to to a calm sort of peace, the type that left you feeling cold and somber. There was no happiness in it, but neither was there any sadness. I was being left alone to sort out my thoughts, and not expected to live the life of another today.

What I was worried about today was something completely stupid, I was worried that I would have to talk to someone today. I really and truly did not want to be bothered or harassed by anyone, be it friend or foe.

But the Earl would come, and he would question me to see if I wanted her back. If I didn't, he'd ask me why. And I would then have to explain myself. This blessed peace would be broken.

As I thought these things I failed to hear the grass rustling softly behind me. The figure behind me didn't mind though, it announced it's presence to me as soon as it stopped walking.

" Good evening." A cheerful voice sounded behind me.

A wave dizziness hit me and I sat down upon the graveyard soil. The Millennium Earl was standing behind me.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

I've been working on this story for a while and decided to publish it. I've never seen it done in D. Gray Man before.

Hope you like it, please leave a comment.


	2. The Earl of Millennium

It seemed the Earl wasn't to be fazed by rude, depressed children who mothers just died. Figures, he'd been in this business for a while. I was expected to be an unresponsive wreck. He'd take his time.

His footsteps sounded across the ground as the Earl walked around to face me. When I didn't lift my eyes to meet his, he lifted my chin up gently. Honestly, you'd think he was my parent or something the way he was behaving. He really wanted to have me make a deal.

" I am known as the Millennium Earl. It seems that your mother has been snatched from you." He said kindly as he stood up again.

His tone seemed to being trying to prompt an answer from me, I stared at him blankly. I was considering my options with this man. I held no emotional attachment to Leo's mother, so I didn't want to resurrect her. Even if I did, I knew it was a bad deal all around. Throughout all my bizarre numbness I felt today, I still had a sense of self preservation. Still what would the Earl do to a person that refused to take his deal? Kill them? Leave them alone?

The manga and anime were very quick to show the people who took the Earl's deal, but there was never any mention of those that had refused the Earl in person. But I had watched other anime, a certain character from Black Lagoon came to mind. Something about begging for your life.

The Earl seemed put out by my lack of both vocal and facial response.

" Come now. Surely you'd like to hear what I have to say next."

He made a show of the metal skeleton.

_ If you want to beg for your life you had to do one of two things..._

The earl explained how he'd put the woman's soul in the skeleton.

_ You had to either give a good reason why you shouldn't be killed..._

He wanted me to give him her name, and name I didn't know.

_Or entertain them so they didn't want to kill you. _

He was waiting for an answer, and I spoke. Let's see if this would catch his interest.

" Why are you the Millennium Earl?" My face still showed no emotion as the words came from my mouth.

As I had hoped, he hadn't been expecting that to be asked that question. The atmosphere became tense, the Earl had to think on what to say.

" To bring back the dead." The tone seemed a little less cheery.

" Why do you bring back the dead?"

" Because I care."

" Why do you care?"

"..." Did he not want to answer that? It didn't matter, I'd continue the conversation regardless.

" Am I expected to want her back?"

I had the feeling that I was sounding like a psycho to him. Yes, the Millennium Earl was probably wondering if I was psychotic now. What were his opinions on sociopaths that weren't Noah or Akuma? Perhaps he disliked seeing that behavior in normal people. Either way, he'd clearly been put off his stride by my behavior.

" I would suppose so."

He seemed to realize that his happy facade had slipped and was trying to inject more cheer into his voice. However, I don't think turning me into an Akuma was at the front of his mind anymore. More likely he was interested in what was happening with me now.

" Are you happy that your mother is dead?"

" Is she?" I looked at the grave. " Well, what do you know. Looks like she is." I sighed, the thinly veiled sarcasm was tiresome. I dropped the effort and reverted back to my default blank stare.

" If not happy, if not sad, then what?"

" 'What?' nothing!" That actually came out with a lot more emotion the I thought I could muster. For the first time this day I almost seemed to be angry.

"It all comes to nothing in the end. Every..., last..., thing..."

For the first time I looked him in the eye with my own volition. In doing so, I managed to see his golden eyes behind his glasses. Brief I wondered how we looked to other people, wondered who they'd find more terrifying. The man who looked like the Devil, or the boy who didn't seem to care.

His permanent smile seemed fake now, a false pretense that he was now being forced to continue. But he didn't seem angry at me, not like he was with the Exorcists in the manga or anime. Rather more confused. But confusion came with questions, questions that I was in no mood to answer. Besides, if the Earl wasn't angry with me, I might be free to leave unscathed.

" I'm.. Gonna leave now. It's cold, and I'm being waited on." I got up and dusted off my clothes.

" Just like that, without doing anything?" Yes, I was going to get questioned some more.

" I'm tired, I've always been tired. There's no need for anymore drama today." I said, back turned to him.

I waited, but there was no answer. Maybe I was wrong, maybe the Earl was angry. Was he going to literally stab me in the back? Send an Akuma out to shoot me to death?

Chancing a glance, I found that he had disappeared. The breath I'd been holding was let out, I looked around the cemetery suspiciously. No Earl, no Akuma, nothing at all. It was almost as if he'd never bothered me.

At least for today, I felt I could count on not being bothered by him again. And perhaps that was for his own good as well, as crazy as it sounds to say it.

Clearly, there was something wrong with me. The cold oppressive feeling of something just being missing. Something that I shouldn't be without has been gone since I had become Leo. Now I had to begin a long, tedious process to find out what it was. Today was enough, I wasn't going to bother with anything today.

I shuddered at the cold, this cemetery didn't need me in it to mourn someone else's mother. If my Aunt and Uncle turned me away again, then I would just wait by the gates until they decided to pick me up.

* * *

><p>Leo seems to have handled that well, but he found something wrong with himself in the process.<p>

I think I wrote the Earl fairly straight, but maybe it could have been better. The Earl's strange sometimes.

Please leave a comment, I really enjoy writing this story.


	3. The Dissonance Beneath

Leo's uncle was right about there not being anytime to mourn. We had to pack up everything in Leo's old house and move it to his Aunt and Uncle's house. It was a good thing that they lived in the same town, because I had to help them carry everything on foot. The problem with 19th century Man was that there were no cars. The money to rent a horse drawn carriage was to much for a for a trip that was only a few blocks.

But it took weeks before we could finally move everything into their house. I was exhausted by the end of it.

Main character's have it rough. If you're a protagonist, chances are that you're either an orphan without relatives or an orphan with horrible relatives. Side character's, as fate would make it, do not have such hardships place on them. Leo's Aunt and Uncle were the type of people you'd meet in most real life cases.

Sure, Leo's Uncle was kind of distant but he didn't out right ignore me. You could tell he was having problems trying to make his house Leo's new home. One night, just before I was going to make and sleep in my newly moved bed, I caught him trying to figure out where to put some of Leo's old pictures.

" You should hang them up next to my aunt." I said as I walked up behind him.

Obviously he didn't here me coming. He gasped and almost dropped the picture of Leo's mother that he currently had been holding.

" Leo, ahh, What?"

" They're sisters, right? It makes sense to have their pictures together."

" Uh, yes. That makes a lot of sense." He shuffled over to the wall where my aunt was.

" I don't mind seeing her face, it doesn't make me upset."

He frozen in place.

" I mean, if that's what you were worried about. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe something else."

" N-No, you're right." He turned to me.

" Ever since the funeral, you've been a little off. Like having to see her buried was difficult for you."

" It was, sort of. I'm not quite sure how to feel exactly, a lot of things just changed that day."

All true, but Leo's Uncle would never understand just how much of Leo true changed that day.

" Well, I'm glad. I'll put the pictures up here then, like you said." He gave me a smile and went to start hanging them up.

" Goodnight." I said and he repeated it back to me.

Leo's aunt was a nice guy, I just got the feel that he wasn't very good at talking through emotional things. To be honest though, not many people are good at really talking to another person about how they feel.

As I was making the bed in my new room, I considered the main cast of Characters in D. Gray Man. Examined their families.

Allen, early life memories were as a circus orphan. Then he met Mana. Then Mana died, got resurrected by Allen, only to be killed by Allen. Then traveled with General Cross til the start of the series.

Lenalee, her parents were killed by Akuma. Separated from her brother and forced to be an Exorcist by them. Now her brother is the head chief and has a sister complex.

Lavi, is a bookman in training. His guardian is Bookman. Bookman doesn't want Lavi to be emotionally involved with anyone in the order.

Kanda, The Black Order's resurrection experiment.

I hoped that now Leo was alive, that he wasn't going to be picked by innocence.

If anyone is wondering why I'm not referring to myself Leo, it's just because it feels odd. I might not be an akuma, but I'm still a soul trapped in a body I don't belong in. Could I be compared to something like the 14th, a personality that has overwritten another person and stolen their body? The 14th did that on purpose thought, I didn't do anything to end up in Leo's body. So what was I then? Did it even matter now that I was here?

" Leo, are you sure that you know how to make a bed?" My aunt popped her head into the room.

" Uh, yeah. Why?" I snapped from my thoughts

" You've just been standing there holding the bed sheets."

" Oh, uh. Ummh. Sorry. I'm just started thinking about things and lost track of everything else."

She gave me a nod, face twisting into a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

" I know, it's hard for me too. She was younger than me, I'd always thought she'd be attending my funeral. Not the other way around."

From what I'd gathered over the past few weeks, Leo's aunt was the older sister of Leo's mother. She'd always looked out for her baby sister and she was determined to look after Leo just the same. I wonder if the Earl avoided people like her, she seemed determined not to be over come with sadness. Instead throwing herself into caring for those who were still around.

As she left, I think I mustered a pang of guilt for being here. Leo's aunt deserved to love Leo, and protect Leo. Instead I was here taking his place, pretending to be her precious nephew.

But I wasn't Leo, and over the weeks I found I wasn't really myself anymore. So many reasons came together to form a person that I almost couldn't recognize as myself.

The thing with being reincarnated as Leo was that he was around 12-years-old. I remember being around 19 in my previous life. Physically I was way shorter than I was use to, causing me to trip a lot and misjudge distances that I use to judge fairly well.

Emotionally, well that was the problem. There is no 'emotional' as I am now. Not it the way I recognized having emotions at the very least.

The first day I hadn't been really concern with it, but I was starting to realize that I was in a bizarre emotional state. Rather, I had a bizarre lack of emotions. It's true that they weren't entirely gone, I had felt annoyed during the visit from the Millennium Earl.

But let's dissect the situation here. I met the Millennium Earl, the great big bad villain of the D. Gray Man series, and the strongest emotion I could muster was mildly annoyed. I remember when I first read the manga, first saw the Millennium Earl being revealed. That had at least scared me a little, and back then he was just a book character.

You'd think meeting him in the flesh would have made me react a bit more.

But it didn't. And though I was now looking back on the situation and logically knew that I should have felt _something_, I didn't even feel the tell tale signs of being worried for my own well being. The want I felt for staying alive was almost strategic in nature, it didn't stem from gut wrenching terror. I couldn't feel anything, but I remembered clearly being able to do that in my old life.

Case and point, an embarrassing example from my past life. : outdoor garbage cans.

When I was eight years old I had a life changing encounter with a spooked squirrel. The squirrel in question managed to hide itself under the garbage can lid. I, an eight year old, was given the duty of taking out the trash after school every Wednesday. I opened the lid and the squirrel literally flipped two feet in the air.

Now I didn't fear garbage cans per say. But I now knock on the lid to see if anything is hiding in it. This is all done very reluctantly though, I'm not a fan squirrels flipping out in my face.

I still check the garbage cans the same, but as Leo I don't have the same emotional reactions. I no longer fear ninja squirrels lying in wait. Which is all well and good, for the squirrels at least. But you can't just lose emotional reactions to things in the blink of an eye. That's not something that happens.

When I finished making my bed, I decided to do a test. I opened my window, first checking to see if anyone was watching. I climbed half out and held myself out in an unbalanced position. Then I waited, and waited, and waited.

I felt nothing.

Pulling myself back into the room, I closed the window. I'd never been afraid of height either, but being _unbalanced_ in high places tended to bother me a lot in my previous life. But now? I understood that I was in a bad position, but I had no fear of it. Logic and practical sense were the only things I found, when all I wanted was to find unchecked emotion. Did I turn Leo into a Vulcan or something?

No, I wasn't entirely without emotion. Again, look at how I was with the Millennium Earl. Being annoyed meant I wasn't emotionless. It just meant that they weren't working the way I had been so use too.

Plus, I still cared about other people. Leo's Aunt and Uncle got some pretty strong emotions from me. But I knew for I fact I wasn't physically showing emotions. To other people I still was looking pretty blank faced, like I was dead or about to die.

I laid down on the bed. Emotions were a tricky business. They could be messed with when something traumatic happens. I couldn't say whether I found my situation traumatizing or not though, I couldn't feel anything when I though of it.

But there was one thing I wanted to do tomorrow. I wanted to go see John.

* * *

><p>Emotional damage may be caused from reincarnation, all least in this case. I wrote in the aunt and uncle from scratch, in the manga it just said that Leo moved in with his relatives. That could have been anyone, so I went with an aunt and uncle.<p>

As for main characters, it's true isn't it? At least in D. Gray Man the main character's have sad back stories and parental figures tend to be not there, not able to help, or just plain mean. But there are side characters that have normal families.

Johnny was a side character turned main, and he seems to have a stable family background. Though one has to wonder how a boy from a tailor family ended up as a scientist for the Black Order. I mean how'd he learn that the Order existed, they don't hand out job applications on the streets do they?

Actually, how does the Order keep getting new scientists and Finders if they're a secret organization. Where are they hiring all these people from?

I'll try to post every week or so from now on, if not I'll try to let you readers know.

Please leave a review.


	4. The Challenge

Today I learned that simply reading the manga and watching the anime of D. Gray Man will not tell you where most of the characters live. I had got up, eaten breakfast with Leo's Aunt and Uncle, and told them I would be visiting John today. They seemed fine with that. Going back and asking them for directions would only cause them to worry now. This arc of the manga had really only been used to fully introduce the Earl and Allen's back story, the town and the characters in it where never seen or heard from again. The good old days in D. Gray Man where everything was simple and there was no behind the scenes manipulation going on. No Noah, No Hitler ripoffs, No 14th invading Allen's mind, No scary Voldemort-like beings taking interest in Allen. Sure it was simple, but D. Gray Man had a certain charm with it that held with you through thick and thin. Besides, reminiscing about the manga helped calm the mounting annoyance that was starting to set in.

I could never get to the levels of what I could consider being angry. But if push came to shove, I could muster up mild annoyance. Not that anyone looking at me could tell. Any emotions I still had would show up on my face unless I tried really, really hard to show them. But I had to practice looking like I had normal emotions, or I'd eventually run into problems.

After going around in a circle nearly three times, I stopped at a street I had seen over and over again. I leaned against a wall and sighed. There was no getting around the fact I didn't know where John's house was. I'd have to ask someone where he lived. Scanning the area I saw an old woman selling what seemed to be hand knitted goods. She seemed like a decent person to ask.

" Umm, Miss?" I said walking up to her.

" Yes, would you like to buy something?" She seemed to brighten at the sight of a potential customer.

" Well, actually I wanted to know if you knew where a certain person lived."

" Oh, I see. Tell you what. Buy something, and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction."

Note to self, never ask a vendor for directions. They'll make you pay for it.

" Fine, I have a little bit of money. How much is that scarf?" It was blue, like the color of my jacket.

" Oh, that's a deal there. Just 15 guinea." I had about twenty-five in my wallet, still I paid it out all the same.

" Thank you. Now, who's house are you looking for?" I folded the scarf and held in under my left arm, it wasn't cold enough for me to wear it now.

" A friend of mine named John, he's about my age. He lives in a big house and has a clown maid-" She waved at me to stop.

" Ahh, yes. I know the boy house. From here you take a turn to the left. Then go all the way to that tower over there. Turn right and go to the middle of the road and you'll be at the gates of his home."

" You know it well?"

" Not well, but I had to give the instructions to another just the other day. There just fresh in my mind is all." The other day? Had Allen Walker asked her? Or did people go looking for John a lot? He was the local trouble maker, it would make sense. Either way it didn't matter, as long as I got to meet John.

" Thank you miss." I smiled, deciding this time to close my eyes. I didn't think I could fake emotion with my eyes very well. Perhaps I'd just make a habit of closing them from now on. The old woman didn't seem to think anything was off about my behavior, she just gave a kind acknowledgement to me before I left. Vaguely I wondered if the old woman was a traveler or new to the town. For all her knowledge about John, she made no comment about me being his troublesome friend.

As it turned out, her directions weren't going to be needed. Turning the corner as instructed I saw John. Walking around and talking animatedly with none other then Allen Walker. I held back for a minute, examining what he looked like. He was dressed in his black suit and carrying a suitcase, no exorcist uniform in sight. So this world was going by the manga, good to know. Timpcampy hovered over his head, then turned as if looking at me.

Timcampy was the one to worry about the most in this situation, being the 14th's golem. I knew for a fact that anything I said in front of him was going to be recorded. Heck, Komui would probably learn everything Allen went through when he reviewed his recordings. Still, I had a plan and recorded or not it seemed the most likely way for me to get anything done around here. I'd have to go my own way if I was to survive in this world now, trying to follow the original stories plot was a good way to die young. I could see that John was about to be told off by Allen like he had been in the original manga, all or nothing now. Time to introduce myself.

" John!" Is all that I yelled.

They both turned to where they heard me calling. You'd swear a second Christmas had been announced by the way John face lit up. I tried out what I dubbed my 'closed-eyed smile' again, as it seemed to be the easiest way to look happy. John skated over to me to me, leaving Allen behind looking slightly bewildered.

" Leo! It's been forever! Are you settled in with your relatives?"

" Yes, I just finished yesterday."

I looked over at Allen, who saw me staring and tried to compose himself. I'd interrupted his self righteous speech about how John was doing dangerous behavior. Don't get me wrong, what John was doing was dangerous. But outright telling a kid like John that something was wrong won't work, John was likely the type of person who had to learn by example.

" Who's he?" I asked, hoping that my face looked genuinely curious and not something completely out of left field.

" He's Allen, A real live exorcist!" Good, my face was fine. John didn't seem to think I was the least bit weird. Not yet, anyways. Allen made his way over to the two of us. I had a feeling he still wanted to continue talking to John. When he arrived he offered me his hand.

" It's nice to meet you, I'm Allen Walker." I shook his hand and tried out my closed-eyed smile for the third time. I was starting to get the hang of fake smiling.

" Leo, good to meet to meet you."

We both shook hands, I looked down at his left hand. The one that had innocence in it. I could see why it would upset some people, Allen looked like his hand had been burn or scarred in some brutal manner. John saw me looking at it, explaining whatever he thought I needed to know before I even asked a question.

" Oh, that's his anti-akuma weapon. It's in his hand, isn't it cool?"

" Yeah. So Allen you're really an exorcist?" As I gained momentum in my plan, I felt some of the emotional facade slip off. When things got serious, I reckoned no one would care.

" Yes, I am. And I was wondering if John would-" But I wasn't going to let him finish his sentence. I had other things that needed to be said. I set my plan in motion.

" What happens to though that turn down the Millennium Earl's offer to bring back their loved ones?" I looked him dead in the eyes, the emotional facade was gone.

You could cut the tension set on us with a knife, even with my nonexistent emotions I still felt an awkward, yet horrified silence that followed my question. I guess I couldn't really blame them, I hadn't really been subtle about it.

" You don't know the answer, do you? That's fine, I can tell you why I asked though."

" Leo, what?" John seemed to be trying to figure out how to talk again. John was smart, though he was just a kid. I doubt he understood exactly was the Millennium Earl really was, though I doubted anyone in the Black Order truly understood what the Millennium Earl was either. But if I was making him worried, good. He needed to learn this wasn't all fun and games.

As for Allen Walker, well it was easy enough to know what I wanted from him. I wanted to see him handle this situation. I was looking to challenge the main character of D. Gray Man.

" The day of my mother's funeral, the Millennium Earl approached me to raise my mother from the grave. I said no. He left, but I don't think he's forgotten me. So tell me, Mr. Exorcist, what will happen to me now."

Allen just stared blankly, but I could wait for my answer. Patiences was quickly becoming my best friend.

* * *

><p>Keep this up Leo and nobody is going to want to be your friend. I personally think that Leo is going to have a lot of problems getting along with any canon character's in the future. First off, his emotions are messed up and he's busy trying to figure out exactly what is wrong. I think Leo's a grating sort of character, but it kind of works for me as I'm writing. So far, what do you think of this Leo?<p>

I hope a lot of people like this story, please leave a comment!


	5. The Navigation of Life

We were at Jean's house, Allen had wanted to discuss the matter where no potential Akuma could sneak up on us. Jean's room was literally a laboratory, littered with all sorts of alchemic and robotic contraptions. Allen seemed amazed. I looked around a bit till I realized I that was behaving eerily like the Akuma Leo in the anime. For some reason that bothered me, so I turned to look at John instead.

" Why where you with an exorcist in the first place John? How did you two meet?" It was a redundant question, I know. But I needed to ask them as proof that I wasn't pulling knowledge out of thin air. To John it was a good question.

" He saved me from a Akuma. I actually saw it made, I saw the Millennium Earl too! He looked exactly how you described." John said.

Allen had quizzed on the way to John's house on exactly what the Earl had looked like. With each new detail on his appearance Allen had looked grimmer and grimmer. He took this seriously, which was a good changing from most people real or fictional. Most people don't care to listen to what kids have to say.

" Listen John, this is serious. Leo could be harmed by the Earl at any time." Allen said.

John scowled, but oddly enough said nothing. He knew that his friend was in danger, that changed a lot. You had to give him credit, John could be bratty but at the end of the day he was pretty calculating. I decided to quiz Allen a bit myself now, see how much he knew on certain subjects.

" How long has the Millennium Earl been around?" In the manga the Earl stated that he'd been around for 7,000 years. The war against him had been going on for only a century.

" I don't know, a long time from what I've gathered. My master has been around for awhile and the war has been going on most of his life." I could tell Allen was really musing with how long the war had been. I wanted to faceplam. General Cross, at least tell your student how long the war he's fighting in has gone on. Just say ' Allen, the War against the Earl has gone on a century. Now, go buy me more liquor!'. Not hard.

" How old is your master?" This I knew Allen didn't know the answer to, he said it in Komui's discussion room in volume 24.

" I don't know. He hasn't aged since I became his apprentice." Allen's face seemed to turn a deep shade of blue.

I don't know what possessed me to go down this rabbit trail. Well, I have a bit of a clue. Even without emotions, hearing Allen insult Cross seemed awfully appealing. His mysterious nature didn't help me survive at all, especially since the hiatus. I haven't even met him yet, but I still am developing a vindictive nature.

" Is your master like an Akuma?"

Allen's face turned to shadows. " No." Then there was a was a fire lit in both his eyes.

" HE'S A GENIUINE AKUMA!" John and I both jumped back as Allen began laughing maniacally. I felt myself writing a mental letter as I watched the whole scene.

_Dear General Cross,_

_ please get a life. _

_ From, stand in Leo._

_ P.S. Please elaborate on the third side of the war so that I am not guessing and end up blowing up something I'm not suppose to. Also, what is the 14th great plan? Is he out to destroy the world like the Millennium Earl, or out to save it? Or is it a third option, like wanting to live on Mars or something? I won't judge the 14th for wanting to live on Mars, back when I had normal emotions I thought Mars was really cool. I just want an answer to the endless questions posed by D. Gray Man._

" Leo, are you sure you want this guys help?" John asked as we moved towards the other side of the room, away from Allen having a break down.

" Where are we going to find another exorcist? They are the specialists when fighting the Earl and the Akuma, right?" I deadpanned. John scowled at me and crossed his arms.

" I don't like it, he's treated us like kids!" I looked at John and back at maniacally laughing Allen.

" You mean before his little episode, right? Cuz I don't think he knows we're here anymore."

" Well, yeah." He looked wearily at Allen.

" I get the whole kid thing, but I think he's just trying to be professional. He's only a few years older then us, that's probably how he gets people to take him seriously." Well, no. Allen took on Mana's persona after the mental trauma of turning his father figure into an Akuma. But John couldn't possibly guess that, and I wasn't going to tell him.

As we had to the window, I heard rustling outside. I turned and saw something dart away from the window. Almost on instinct I ran and opened it.

" Who's There!?" I yelled as I tried to gain a look at whoever was running away. They'd already turned the corner on the house though, because while I couldn't see them I could hear pounding footsteps.

John and a quickly recovered Allen rushed over to the window to scout as well, but it was useless. Who'd ever been watching us had manage to bolt before we could see them.

" Was that the Earl? His Akuma?" John asked wildly.

" Do they usually peek through people's windows and run when their noticed?" I stared blankly at Allen. He shook his head.

" That doesn't seem like the Earl."

I didn't believe that Allen knew the Earl well enough to judge what the Earl would or wouldn't have done. Still, I said nothing. Because I knew that the Earl wouldn't have been spying at us through the window, he would have sent a Akuma to blow out the wall. A quick look at the window led me to believe even more that it was the Earl, their were fresh fingerprints where the stalker had been crouching. The Earl was always seen wearing gloves, he wouldn't have left finger prints.

But I didn't tell either of them that. Let's face it, this did not happen in the manga. But if not the Earl, then who? Could there be more to Leo then met the eye? Maybe someone was stalking him, and I just didn't notice it these past few weeks. Wait, maybe it was the Millennium Earl. Maybe, Yes. That could be it.

" Allen, are there humans that work for the Millennium Earl?" John turned to me.

" No way, why would anyone help the Millennium Earl!? He's trying to kill humans, he wouldn't work for them!" So John didn't know about them. But if this is the manga events of D. Gray Man, then Allen should have learned about it. Anyone hear of the reverse novels?

" No John. There are Humans that assist the Millennium Earl in creating Akuma. They're called brokers." So the light novels were canon here. I made note of that for the future.

" Huh?" Was all that John could manage. Normally I'd be glad that he was starting to see that the war he thought he knew about was a lot darker then he thought it was. But I was starting to get lost in my own thoughts.

I honestly wondered at this point if the Millennium Earl truly cared if I lived or died. If he didn't care and left me to rot, then I was good to go. I could live in this town till I died with my aunt and uncle and never have to worry about the Earl or the Order again. If he had taken notice of me, then what was he waiting for. Was he waiting to see what was going to happen to me?

From what I knew the Millennium Earl had written a whole script detailing how he was going to end the world. Judging from how the manga was written, Leo was clearly not in that script apart from teach an annoying little boy a lesson. But now? The best I could ever decide about the Millennium Earl's character was that he was unstable, predicting him was suppose to be hard.

" Leo?" Allen's voice shook me from my thoughts. I looked up at him blankly, he seemed worried about me.

" The graveyard." I decided to say.

" What?" Allen said.

" I haven't been to the graveyard since her funeral, so he might have been keeping an eye on it to see if I came back. We should go there." A likely place to go, there could be a chance that he was waiting there. Allen shook his head.

" We can't Leo, it's to dangerous." I sighed, and John frowned at Allen again.

" The Earl's sent people to follow Leo, so we should stop him." I hadn't really meant, 'let's stop the Earl' more like 'let's ask the Earl if he's my stalker'. But John wasn't really listening to that.

" John, you need to stop this." Allen tried to reason with him, but John was having none of it. I dived out of the way as John threw an onion bomb at Allen. He grabbed my hand.

" Come on Leo, let's go see if the Earl is haunting your mom's grave!"

We were long gone by the time Allen recovered, probably wondering if we were worth the trouble of saving. Rollerskating was never my forte, but John had pretty much forced me to wear them before we bolted out the door. Trying to keep up with John, I wondered if Leo was still going to make it out of this situation. Or perhaps I'd just bought him sometime before destiny decided it wanted him back.

Rather, destiny wanted me back.

* * *

><p>Leo's not doing to well trying to predict the Earl's next move. I'd hate having to go in a battle of wits with the Earl, he'd probably find some way to trick everybody. John still doesn't seem to get the seriousness of the situation and Leo is not in a condition to care as much as he should.<p>

Please leave a comment, tell me what you think of the story so far.


	6. The Conflict of Logic

On a scale of one to ten, I'd give John a two in planning. For Allen I'd give a three, because he can fight. If you think I'm being harsh on them, don't worry. I give myself a solid zero. This whole scenario played out almost exactly like the manga did, minus me being an Akuma. How is that even possible?

We arrived at the graveyard on our roller-skates, only for John to bump right into the Earl. He jumped back, but the Earl clearly wasn't interested in him. No, this time around he was looking at me. Of course, I just stared back blankly. The Earl didn't need any emotion from me.

" So we meet again Leo. Tell me, have you reconsidered my offer?" The Earl extended his hand to me.

I don't know if I was over thinking things, but I didn't think he believed I would say yes to a second offer. Still, he said it anyways. Was it something he had to ask me? Was a part of being the Millennium Earl?

" Take this!" John threw his trademark onion bomb at the Earl and grabbed my hand.

" Come on Leo, let's get out of here!" He dragged me with him.

" Wait, didn't we come here to find the Earl?" It seemed like a good question to me, but John seemed in no hurry to answer it.

" So you were the one harassing this boy." Now I looked behind me at the graveyard entrance to see Allen standing there, his innocence arm fully activated.

Hero's always show up late, for once I'd like to see a guy early. Unless it was Cross. What's my problem with that guy? I haven't even met him yet. Allen, the Earl, and many other character's harbored a least some dislike for him, I guess. So maybe I'm justified in not liking the guy. It's a bad sign when both the main hero and the main villain can't stand the sight of you.

" And you are.?" I turned my head back to the Earl. John and I seemed to be stuck in some sort of limbo. Unable to move from the space between the Millennium Earl and Allen Walker.

" Greetings, Millennium Earl. I am your nemesis." I turned back to look at Allen's serious face. I also noted that John just seemed at a loss as to who to look at.

" Are you an exorcist?" There was a pause in which Allen glared back at the Earl silently. Soon the Earl decided to speak again, giving Allen a mocking sort of half bow.

" Well, I'm pleased to meet you-" Another pause. This time the Earl seemed to be considering something. John was almost frozen in fear.

" Wait. Meet you?" The manga did not do this scene justice, neither did the anime for that matter. Having the Earl remember you, even vaguely, was about as off setting as they come. I have messed up emotions, and it still bothers me. Imagine some creepy person you never want to talk to suddenly realizes that you both went to school together, thus wanting to talk to you. It's kind of that sort of creepy.

This time it was I who grabbed John and began dragging him to the graveyard entrance. This was where the fight began. Only instead of attacking me, Allen went straight for the Earl. You know how the fight basically went. This time, Allen wasn't shot trying to defend John and the Earl brought out his Akuma much faster. During the fight, Allen's past still managed to be revealed to me and John because the Earl remembered Allen.

But that wasn't what I was focusing on. Now behind the safety of the gates, I began to wonder something that seemed pretty important to me. How had the Earl known I was coming here? The person at the window had run away, so they couldn't have heard where we were going. They couldn't have tracked us and contacted the Earl either, Broker's weren't given any tools to contact the Earl. All they had was telephones. You couldn't stand by the telephone and chase two young boys half across the city at the same time. So then how?

The battle was finished, the Earl seemed to be leaving.

" Earl!" John cried out, I jumped in surprise. He'd been in shock to whole time.

" Hmm?" The Earl seemed to notice us again as he was floating Mary Poppins style in the air.

" Were you the one watching Leo through the window!?" Sometimes having an impulsive friend was a good things. They ask the tough questions that most people don't want to ask.

" Window? No, I don't remember doing such a thing." Was he lying? I couldn't think of a reason the Earl would do such a thing. He wouldn't outright lie unless there was a need for it, right? But then how else could he have known I was coming here if he hadn't been watching me?

" As for you Exorcist." The Earl had returned his attention to Allen, who stood imposingly below the Earl.

" You have only witnessed the opening chapter." Oh boy, if the Earl only knew how true that was. But I'm interrupting, back to his speech.

" The Akuma in this world will continue to evolve. Now begins the journey leading up to the true tragic end." Why was he telling us this!? We're all his century year old enemies, he waited a century to get this war into gear!? I sighed, it had already been a long day.

" I am the Millennium Earl, the Maker of the Akuma." His monologue continued.

" I shall obliterate your puny 'God' and lead the world to it's death with my Akuma. An Exorcist, a soldier of life. You can't save this world no matter how hard you try. Never!" His monologue over, the Millennium Earl faded into the sky. Laughing manically as he vanished.

" Did he just tell us his entire plan?" I asked John.

" I think so."

" What's the point of telling your enemies your grand master plan?"

" Don't know." John was worse then me right now, he was still absorbing all he's seen. That meant not reacting to anything else around him.

That was until Allen fell down, then he was pretty concerned. I trotted after him as hie ran to check on Allen's well being. I guess that the fight still took a lot out of him, even if he didn't take a bullet for John. I was actually happy that John was distracted, it kept him from asking questions about my behavior. Behavior I'm sure was not typical of Leo.

Besides, taking things slowly turned out to be a good idea. I got an answer to why the Millennium Earl knew I was here. By the gates to the cemetery, there was a ladybug. Just one, sitting perfectly still on the side of the gate. Deciding to follow my gut feeling I picked it up and crushed it.

Let's just say I learned that lack of emotions does not make you immune to electrocution. I think I heard John call out to me when I hit the ground. But all I could wonder as the world fell away from me was one thing.

Who'd been watching us at the window?

* * *

><p>And so the arc with Leo's involvement is coming to a close. What is he going to do now?<p>

I'm glad people seem to like this story, it's a pretty odd idea in the D. Gray Man Fandom. Please give me lots of feedback, who knows how it might help.

Also, I might update a little slower during November and December. I got some work to do and I'm saving for a new computer. However, I will still be writing when I have the chance.

Again, please leave a review and tell me what you think.


	7. The Quiet Reflection

Stupid, that was what it was. I'd guessed that the lady bug in the cemetery was really a talisman used by the Earl. Why the heck would I have gone and crushed it? I knew that slightly messing with the bug could land you with electricity running through your veins. Lack of emotions did not mean increased intelligence I suppose.

The bug itself was still interesting, though. The Earl probably had used it as a trip wire of sorts to alert him if I entered the cemetery. I guess he had to use his lady bugs somehow before he used them against Allen's eye.

I really couldn't do much at the moment except think over the days events. You see, I was currently suffering from sleep paralysis. Basically, my mind was awake but my body was still fast asleep. I'd done this once or twice in my past life, each time waking up out of panic. Panic, clear, was not going to rescue me from this situation. Neither would any bed side manners from Allen or Jean.

Just shake me awake guys, you won't hurt my feels.

No luck, I'd just have to wait this predicament out. Thus, I set to work thinking out my current situation.

I've read fan fiction before, though this was the type of scenario that was one of the strangest in writing. A fan of the series falling into the world of said series, sometimes through literal falling.

I thought back to how I had died for the first time. I think it was a car crash. I was in a car, felt like we hit something, started tumbling, Bam! Nothing. Car crashes tended to happen pretty fast, so not having a clear grip on what really happened wasn't really that odd. Death struck before I could realize what was going on. Now I was in a world who's near future I had full knowledge of. Irony, go figure.

The issue now was to decide what I was going to do with that information. I could stay at home with my Aunt and Uncle, waiting out the coming apocalypse. Or I could risk my neck for a bunch of character's who have little to know idea what was really going on. I'm not trying to be mean to the main heroes, more like their bosses. Their bosses being Apocryphos, and maybe the other cardinals and even the Pope in this world.

Call me crazy, but Mr. Voldemort ripoff didn't really strike me as the type to care much for humanity. The Heart seemed more content with hiding itself then leading the exorcists into more successful battles. Please don't tell me that the heart can't expose itself, I understand that. But the Heart clear has been manipulating things behind the scenes.

It decided to make Allen's innocence save him. It had Lenalee's innocence, then Kanda's, turn to crystal types. Why couldn't it direct the exorcists to learn the Noahs weaknesses ahead of time? How about giving innocence the ability to sense other innocence, so that finding it would be easier. Imagine how many lives that could save, the Finders in D. Gray Man would be put in less danger if Exorcists could at least track innocence that was in the surrounding area. The Noah had no problem finding new born Noah, the Earl at least knows their born because he'll start crying.

I could have been over thinking this, but bear with me. In this world innocence demanded a lot from their chosen heroes, and other humans deemed it alright because it was made from God. Seeing as how a certain independent innocence is so high up in rank, it's hard to decide what is truth and what is fiction.

Besides that was the origin story on how the Black Order was made. Supposedly a cube made of innocence was found containing a warning and instructions on the use of innocence. Though there are glaring problems in the cubes warning that I found character's in the story were not concerned about.

The Earl was defeated, the message was made by those who stated to have triumphed over darkness but would soon meet their end. Wait, wait, wait. Defeat? Then why were they going to die? Either Komui, who'd been telling the story, had not been informed or the message makers intentionally left out the reason humanity was going to die.

The only reason that humanity was here today was that the Noah repopulated the earth. Yes, our enemies that were now trying to destroy us were the ones who gave us life. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. Unfortunately, the confusion didn't end there. The millennium Earl managed to come back and has been on this Earth with his Noah for 7000 years. This holy war has been going on for a century, roughly 100 years tops. What in the world was he doing these past 6900 years? Did he just get up one day and say ' Man, I've had a good 7 millennium break. Time to start killing again! _Heart_.' From what I gathered he'd only started attacking when the cube was found by humans, go figure.

By the way, looks like brain strain doesn't end sleep paralysis. The best I managed to do in the time I was thinking was maybe twitching the toes on my left foot. Maybe, I could barely feel anything in this state. But I knew that if something disturbed me I would wake up, and I desperately wanted to wake up. Sleeping is boring when you're brain is fully awake.

Back to the matter I was thinking of. Yeah, the evidence that I had pointed to one thing. Not enough information. Really, that's all I had. The Earl was a psycho killer, yes. But he was a millenniums dormant psycho killer, regardless of the wrongs he is now committing I still wanted to know what set him off.

And being around Allen and the rest of the Black Order would not help me in the least. As much as it would be interesting to see the world these character's lived in, I had to think about the bigger picture. I had to-

The sound of breaking glass is what woke me up, finding myself once again in Leo's room. The window had been smashed through, a rock lay in a pile of broken glass. Trying not to cut myself, I hurried over to pick it up. I clearly saw that it had a note tied to it. I took the note off and hid it under my pillow, there was no time to read it now. My Aunt and Uncle burst through the door.

" What happened? Leo! Are you okay!?" My Aunt seemed frantic, hugging me as thought trying to keep me safe from some unknown attacker.

" Yeah, this rock-" I tried to lift my hand, my Uncle took it from me.

He looked towards the window, then back at the rock.

" Is this John's idea of a joke?" he seethed.

" I don't know, I didn't see. It woke me up." They were both clearly upset.

It occurred to me that someone, either John or Allen, had probably delivered me home with little to no explanation as to how I was unconscious. I'd have to explain, they'd ask me to. But first I was ushered out of the room by my Aunt while my uncle cleaned up the mess.

Downstairs I got sat down by my Aunt and she gave me soup to eat. I ate at a slow pace, constantly glancing back at her worried face. She, in turn, quietly looked to me then back upstairs until my uncle came down. I didn't wait to be asked, they'd been giving me looks like they wanted to ask for a while now.

" There was a creepy fat guy at the cemetery were Mom was." All true, the Earl was a creepy fat guy.

" How did you get to the cemetery?" My aunt asked quietly.

" John said he wanted me to cheer up, so I could pick what we were going to do today. I wanted to see Mom's grave, I hadn't seen it since- Since we buried her at the funeral. I thought it would be fine to go there as long as someone else was there." The statement was made to sound full of emotions that I couldn't feel, at least not strongly. But the purpose was also to take blame away from John and place the incident on my head as much as possible. Clearly, it was working.

" But there was this really creepy fat guy there, and he seemed like one of those crazy people that go to insane asylums. He tried to attack us and stuff. But this other guy, he said his name was Allen, jumped in a saved us. He chased the guy off. But I think I hit my head or something during that, cause I passed out."

I waited then, watching as the two adults considered what I had said. There was nothing wrong with a young boy taking a friend and visiting his mother's grave. There could have been a crazy fat person who came and attack two young boys for no apparent reason. And if a stranger jumped in to help because he saw what was going on, well who would really think that was strange? They more or less seemed to believe me.

" Could that have been the person who threw the rock?" My Uncle mused.

" That means he knows where we live!" My Aunt gasped, turning to me and giving me an imploring look.

" He was dressed weird, that's kind of what made him creepy. He looked like he was trying to be a gentleman, but doing it wrong. People would notice if it was him." I said.

" Then I'll ask around, see if the neighbors saw anyone strange outside." My uncle said.

" I'll called in someone to fix the window, dear. Move whatever you want downstairs for now. You'll catch a cold if you sleep there now."

They clearly decided that I was an innocent victim here, believing me fully. It kind of felt bad leaving them in the dark like this because they cared so much about me. I mean, Leo. It was Leo that they cared about, not me.

So upstairs I grabbed the blankets and pillows off my bed. Having a moment to myself, I read the note that had been on the rock.

' _Who the hell do you think you are?_ '

It certainly didn't seem like the Earl wrote this.

* * *

><p>And I'm back! Good to be back. I like working on this story because it gives me pace to work at, something that I need to develop with my original stories as well. But this fanfiction helps me write a lot as well, it's good practice.<p>

Please leave a comment. Tell me what you think of the story, any thoughts as to what may happen next?


	8. The Steps Taken

It didn't take me long to make a decision on what I was going to do next. Hesitation would lead to death, one of the few things I still cared to avoid in this world.

" Ah, you again. Come to buy another of my wears?" I'd been hoping she'd be here, the old woman who'd given me the directions that fateful day. It seemed that even early in the morning she sat outside to sell whatever she had made.

" Yes, and bother you with more questions if you don't mind." I didn't look at her, instead giving my attention to the table of clothing. I had the scarf with me still, but I'd need more then that now.

" Well, buy something. Then feel free to ask away." I got the feeling that this old woman made her living turning anything she could into something she could sell. Not that I found that particular awful, I'd like to know how to do that in the future. I picked a coat she had, it would suit me needs just fine.

" You said that someone else asked you where the mansion was, could you tell me anything about them?" I dug into my bag I had on me and gave her the money she wanted.

" Yes, I could. A pretty young girl. Brown hair, brown eyes. Few years older than you are now I would wager." I nodded as if I knew who that person was, taking the coat from the table.

Brown hair, brown eyes. A young girl. The best character guess I could give based on the description was- that Chinese girl from the science division? I think you'd call her Lo Fwa based on the manga.

If my brain worked on gears, you'd hear them screeching against the metaphorical wrench that had been thrown into them.

" Did she give a name?"

" No, just paid and left. She did take a rather nice scarf from me, only it was red." I tried to picture Lo Fwa with a red scarf chucking a rock through my bedroom window.

I know she liked Allen but, damn, talk about jealousy. Against another guy of all people! Okay, Okay! I'm joking. I don't think Lo Fwa was even in this town, let alone stalking me or Allen. I don't think she's met Allen yet, so she can't be jealous of anybody over him. Clearly, it was someone else.

" That helps, thank you." The old woman gave me a look, something odd that made me almost uncomfortable staring back at her.

I shrugged at her, but she just chuckled at my confusion.

" That way you talk to people boy, you seem like a walking corpse. You'll only upset people if you keep up that attitude."

Oh, I'd been caught being the creepy kid I was. Took the world long enough to notice. I rewarded her with a slight smile.

" Says that woman who has to be paid to answer questions." Again she chuckled, apparently she had been waiting to be called out as well.

" Oh dear! I've been caught. Well, I suppose being smart will even out you're odds in life. Take care."

Something in her voice told me she knew I was up to something, knew I wasn't behaving like a good child should. I turned and walking down the street, waiting for her to stop me. An uncanny feeling told me she wasn't going to do that. I appreciated this person far more that anyone else I encountered in this world. The reason for this seemed beyond my ability to riddle out. It demanded deep emotional introspection as a price for such knowledge. That would take time and energy I wasn't willing to spare. So I walked on without even looking back, putting the old woman out of my mind entirely.

I made no detours, no goodbyes. That's right, I'd left town without telling anybody the day after I had woken up. Taking whatever I could find from my room and the pantry when everyone had been busy else where, I'd packed myself to go. My Aunt and Uncle, John, Allen, they were all left in the dark by me. Nothing much to be proud of though, they would probably be worried sick about where I could have gone.

Once outside the town limits I consulted a map I had found in my room. It would take two days to get to the next town that had a train station, but I had to go there. My town didn't have one for some reason.

I didn't have some grand plan to destroy the Earl, or the Black Order for that matter. In fact the fate of the world was pretty trivial to someone like me, who had no emotions for much of anything. And meeting my favorite characters? Again no emotions in this world. Can't get excited to meet someone if the emotion excitement is not installed in your brain. For the record, in my past life I was a fan of all the Noah, every general except Cross, Komui, and that ghost girl from the zombie arc.

The stalker was my main concern, doing something unexpected would let me know if she was following me or Allen. If she was following me, I wagered it was out of hate for some reason. If it was Allen, well, that was a mystery at this point. There are a number of reasons that shadowy strangers could be following Allen Walker around. Separating from each other would make her choose who to follow, and give me some insight on who she wanted. I'd look for why after that.

Can anyone tell that I'm completely gambling on this plan? If I had my emotions, I'd likely be to scared to be making such bold moves.

Walking on, I kept looking behind me as subtly as I could. So far, I couldn't determine any signs of being followed. Perhaps I really wasn't her target. I'd likely find her again in Germany, during the Rewinding Town arc. I wouldn't go to Allen's first mission location, to riddled with deadly akuma murdering side characters. For now I'd stick with Germany.

* * *

><p>Leo! People don't just up and leave without saying goodbye in D. Gray Man! They have an epic goodbye, promising they love the people they're leaving! Then they leave! Go back to manga character school!<p>

If anyone is wondering where I got the idea for being reborn as a character in D. Gray Man, I'm spilling my secrets today. Basically I read a lot of Naruto fanfiction where this happened, and wondered why this wasn't done in D. Gray Man. I mean there are a lot of stories where fans fall into D. Gray Man, but no rebirths. As for what's up with Leo's emotions, I don't think being reborn had a good effect on him. He died and came back. D. Gray Man isn't a story where bring back the dead is a good thing, regardless of the method used.

Please leave a comment, tell me what you think about the story.


	9. The Rewinding City, Part 1

" It's happening again!?" Miranda cried, waking me up in the usual startling fashion.

I was getting use to this, sadly. Miranda waking me up and informing me that once again it was October 9th. Looking at her I gave my usual scripted response.

" What do you mean?" Getting up and walking towards the door, sounding as confused as I possibly could.

Speaking of confused, anyone reading this will probably be confused as to why I would jump so far ahead as I did. I'd reply that nothing of any note took place. My whole trip to Germany was just me going from one train to another, pickpocketing or doing a quick odd job for cash. It's not hard to casually steal from someone when things like crippling guilty or fear are lost on you.

Traveling here wasn't a stress free trip though, I still had a few worries on my mind. First was the Earl. He was interested in me to some degree, so there was always the chance that he'd have me killed or kidnapped. Well, perhaps I'm just full of myself in that regard. I thought over my encounter with the Earl a lot since I've been traveling, and I can fully say that he has better things to deal with then me. That ladybug tripwire spell should be proof right? If he really wanted to keep an eye on me, he'd send and Akuma, or maybe have a skull track me with some spell. The whole reason the Earl showed up at the cemetery was probably to scary me and John, like a game. Perhaps the fact that nothing has happened to me yet is even more proof that he isn't incredibly interested in me.

The second reason was much easier to worry about. Little Miss Stalker, because I was pretty sure she was a girl. I'll call her Mrs. S for convenience sake until I get her real name. She wanted to know where John's house was, and watched us while we were talking with Allen. Then she threw a rock through my window and insulted me. It wasn't rocket science to guess who she was, anyone could guess it if they read D. Gray Man. I'm willing to bet that she, like myself, is a reborn D. Gray Man fan. Judging by the lack of activity on my side, I was also going to bet that she was now following Allen.

But that's where my guesses on her end. I haven't met her face to face, so judging her character on the few times I've encountered her is hard. I'm not a super genius, and this story isn't Death Note. There could be a million reason as to why she threw a vague, angry letter into my room. Maybe it was because I really did something awful, or it could be a stupid reason. Either way, I was probably going to meet her soon enough. Allen was coming to the Rewinding city.

I got to said city long before October 9th, a little more than two weeks ago. At the time I was at a complete loss as to what I was suppose to do next. Little to no emotion does not equal genius, as I've been learning since the beginning of this whole ordeal.

Settling for a chance meeting with Miranda was my best bet. I busied myself by looking around for places I might meet her. I choose the district in the city with the most shops and restaurants, soon finding her. I think she'd just been fired again, judging by the dark aura that surrounded her. As I slowly walked toward her I saw a battered stuffed animal that been thrown into an alley entrance. I grabbed it, thus setting off my impromptu plan.

" Excuse me, Miss!?" I ran over to Miranda.

At first she didn't notice me, she must have thought I had been calling to someone else. I picked up the pace and was soon right next to her.

" Miss, could I bother you for a moment?" Surprised, she almost shrieked at the sight of me.

" Do you know where I could find a place to repair this toy? I just came to this town, and no one's been very helpful." Yes, I was really laying on the innocent little kid charm here. Anyone who hates manipulative little kids should exit the story now, because this is my best trick.

" I-I I don't think-k I-I'm the person-n t-to ask-k." Miranda was so startled she began stuttering.

" But! But! no one else will even talk to me!" I tried my hand at puppy dog eyes.

I think that was what finally got her to talk to me more.

" I repair-r those those at h-home. Y-you can come with me if you want."

I agreed and she showed me to her apartment rather nervously. She tried to repair it, and I complimented her for it. Then she asked about me and I told her that I was in town by myself.

" I've been looking for work in different towns cause I need the money, but no one will hire me. Probably cause I'm a kid. How's the job situation here?" I looked at her quizzically.

" I'm really not the person to ask for that, I'm fired from nearly every job after a few days."

" At least they give you a few days. Everyone takes one look at me and tells me to get lost." I sighed. I had asked for jobs and been turned down for the most part traveling here.

" Yes, that's sounds pretty awful as well." She agreed. I noticed Miranda stopped stuttering after a while.

" The problem is that finding a place to stay will be expensive."

" Oh no, you can stay here until you find a job!" She told me.

The sudden change in her demeanor shocked me.

" I can't let a young boy rot on the streets, that would be terrible!" I smiled at her sudden enthusiasm.

" Then I guess will have to look for jobs together tomorrow."

" Yes!"

" Thank you, Miranda."

She stared in shock for a moment, I remembered the importance of 'Thank you' in the manga. She might have been a gloomy character, but she wasn't going to throw a nice twelve year old out on the streets. In my books, that made her better than most of the people on this planet.

Still, me being there didn't prevent her from getting fired for the one hundredth time. It only mean that I was there when she wished that tomorrow would never come. Didn't mean I wasn't left with a bizarre mystery on my hands.

Miranda was the accommodator of the Innocence, so it made sense that she could remember every time it was October 9th. But I didn't have any Innocence that I knew of, so me remembering each rewound day was weird. Didn't keep me from pretending that I didn't know what was going on though, I didn't want to be ruled out as a possibility. So each day I pretended like it was the first time it was October 9th, but I actively showed that I believed Miranda when she said the day had been repeating.

Thus the current story.

" If you don't remember, than it really is still October 9th. Listen, Leo. I might sound crazy but-"

She told me again how the town had been stuck in the same day. I nodded after she finished.

" It seems like the first October 9th to me, so why is it effecting you?" I wondered absently.

" I don't know, maybe I'm going crazy."

" I doubt it, I've never heard of a person reliving the same day over and over again being put in a mental institution." I sighed.

" Oh, how do I get this to end!?" Miranda began crying into the paper.

I had to admit, this was actually a pretty awful situation to be stuck in. Just because I wasn't effected by the time rewinding, didn't mean I was free to leave. When Miranda hadn't been with me one day, I tried to walk out of the front gates. It was useless, I just walked right back into the city. Even weirder was that no one seemed to notice my transdimentional shift at the front gates. I don't think the Innocence was just effecting time, I think it was also effecting their minds. Making it so that if anything odd happened involving Miranda's Innocence, no one under it's effect would notice anything. It left me feeling kind of cold, that wasn't to far from Apocryphose altering people memories to suit his needs.

I bent down and took the paper from her. On que I heard the neighbors next door starting to fight. Honestly, who would live with a man that they knew was that much of a cheater. October 9th wasn't the first time this fight had occurred, it happened before. They'd always make up the day after the fight too. Any bets on how long the relationship was actually going to last? Katsura Hoshino should just do a whole one-shot on the cheating neighbor guy, show us guys what not to do in a romantic relationship. This guy might be worse then Cross, if you're willing to believe that.

" Why don't we go for a walk outside?" I placed the paper on the table.

" Those kids will try to throw poop at me again." Miranda soobed miserably.

" I'll go out first and chase them off for you then, just tell me where they're at." I offered her my hand to help her stand up.

If Miranda thought that my accepting behavior towards the whole situation was odd, she never told me directly. It was likely that it was something that she had accepted herself, since the days had been repeating. Either way she eventually agreed to go outside like she always did now. I kept true to my word and chase off the annoying kids before Miranda even went out of the house and we were on our way.

" So, how many days has it been now?" I said the scripted line I said everyday, knowing full well what the answer was.

" It will be the thirteenth time now." She told me.

" That's good, barely half a month. If you had been stuck living the same day for years, that would be a chore wouldn't it." I said. Yes, it would be a chore for me to pretend this for years on end as well. I may be lacking in strong emotions, but the thought of living my life that way sounds unappealing.

" How can I be the only one in this town noticing this? Why is no one else affected?" Miranda was once again covered in that dark, gloomy aura.

I said nothing. Allen and Lenalee would be here soon enough, as well as Road. If Mrs. S hadn't been killed by loitering around a battleground, then she could show up at sometime as well. I wanted to deal with her more than anyone else.

It seems that some deity of hurrying things up was on my side. As we made are way into a familiar alley, an Akuma was there to greet us. By 'greet' I mean threaten us and ask vague questions about Innocence. I'm serious, the Earl needs to teach his Akuma to ask more in-depth questions. He should make them go to a school to learn to be smart Akuma, and they'd go if they were ordered by him. Instead they get blown up by Allen, who came to our timely rescue.

I don't even think Allen got a proper look at me before Miranda grabbed me in joy and ran off.

" I did it! I got free of today!" She yelled in triumphant glee, dancing around with me being held like a rag doll. I might as well have weighed as much, extreme happiness seemed to give Miranda super human strength.

Miranda ran all the way back holding me and started throwing a two person party the minute she got inside her apartment.

" Hurry! I can get back to living a normal life!" She poured me some juice, now giving off an aura of pure happiness.

" Uh, okay. I'm glad the problem is solved." For once I think my nervous voice was actually real. Miranda's mood swings were comical in the manga, but deal with her face to face was a different experience all together.

She was like my polar opposite, maybe that's why I couldn't bring myself to even try to burst her bubble today. I'd never seen her this happy before.

Even so, all good things will come to an end. As demonstrated by the next day.

" This is the thirteenth time!" Miranda began sobbing into the newspaper the next day.

" What do you mean?" I said for the thirteenth time, getting off of the decent makeshift bed she'd given me.

Well, this ordeal would be over soon enough. We would likely meet Allen today, I did my best to remember that to me this was suppose to be the first October 9th. So I would say I recognized Allen from my time with John. The question was, how would Allen act if he saw me? I was a runaway after all.

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><p>I'm back! Sorry I took so long, had some technical problems. But everything's fixed now. I hope this chapter is fun to read, and I'll be back with another really soon.<p>

Please leave a comment, tell me what you think of the story.


	10. The Rewinding City, Part 2

The very idea of meeting Allen Walker was a bit of a confusing one. I had left without really saying goodbye, but Allen probably knew that I had run away. Would he force me to go back home after this incident was over? Or would he force me into the Order somehow?

You may think that I'm being over-critical, saying things like 'force' with Allen Walker. But with how my situation had been, he seemed likely to try and help me. And 'helping' a twelve year old kid usually means becoming their authority figure. Making decisions for them and such. This wasn't really because I was a nineteen year old trapped in a twelve year olds body. No, it was more like as a person I didn't trust Allen Walkers decisions.

When I had challenged him back at Leo's old town, I truly expected him to handle the situation differently. Perhaps, with hope beyond hope, better then I could imagine. But the reality I was given wasn't so great. It's not that I hate Allen for not rising above and beyond, just that, well, how do I put this nicely? No really! I'm not trying to be mean here. He's got his own problems to deal with, he doesn't really have the resources to deal with my problems at the moment. Of course, Allen would never admit to that. He'd try to help me to the bitter end, bitter being me dying a horrible death. Allen has main character status, the probability of him dying right now is very low.

So strolling down the street for the 14th time with Miranda, I had two things to consider. One, we were meeting Allen face to face after the 14th October 9th. Ha, irony. Second, what did I have to say in order to not blown my cover? I settled on recognizing him at the restaurant and telling Miranda, that might work.

Plans changed as life would have it, because when I saw Allen walking by in the crowd I gasped. Aside from the bizarre burst of emotion, I was surprised at how clearly I had remembered this image from the manga. Allen, with his hood on, walking solemnly on through the crowd of people. It had haunted me then, and it still haunted me now. Something about the image had always made me think how Exorcists are out of place in society. Unnatural, unwanted, outcasts, and possibly for the first time since I became Leo I felt sick to my stomach. The emotion faded fast though, because I vaguely recognized Miranda next to me. She was asking me what was wrong.

" I've met that guy before." It was the first thing that came to mind.

" Huh? Does that mean you remember some of the other day!?" Miranda brightened up at the prospect of me remembering another October 9th .

" No, I met him before I came to this city. He saved my life." I was relieved to see that confusion was what replaced her happiness, and not the usual dark aura.

" Come on!" I said with the best smile I could manage.

Taking her hand, I led her to the place Allen was going. It was the restaurant where the owner ordered the same barrel of wine. Odd how telephone calls could get through to the other side when nothing else could.

As we approached the building, I looked around as non-nonchalantly as I could. Mrs. S was nowhere to be seen. It made sense. If that girl had been following Allen, then she wouldn't have been able to get into the rewinding city. Only Exorcists and Noah could do that. How did I know she wasn't an Exorcist or Noah. Well, look at it from my perspective. A fangirl, which I assumed she was, would have jumped on the chance to become an exorcist and meet Allen face to face. A Noah would have no qualms slaughtering me with their superhuman powers if I had made them that angry. Actually, if said fangirl was an exorcist she might have no probably slaughtering me either. In other words, I was lucky that my main enemy appeared to have no superpowers. Because she made it clear in the past that she was a sneaky person who hated my guts.

But I'm getting a little off topic. If Mrs. S was neither a Exorcist nor a Noah, than I would be free of her for the remainder of this arc. That meant I could focus more on whatever I was going to do here, which was meet up with Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee.

So I decided to go with my normal anime kid routine, I let go of Miranda's hand and ran into the restaurant all excited.

" Allen, Is that really you!?" I cried out as Miranda followed behind me nervously.

The look on Allen's face, oh that look. Why couldn't I have brought a camera to capture that priceless look on his face when he saw me.

" Leo! What are you- Ahh! It's the woman I saw!" He suddenly cried.

This caused Miranda to bolt like a scared rabbit.

" No, Miranda! I'm telling you, they can help you!" I tried to say while holding on to her.

Both me and Allen managed to stop her as she somehow managed to climb out a window. After everything had calmed down we all sat down at the table to talk. I looked at Lenalee, it was hard not too. If I counted Miranda, then Lenalee was the third main exorcist that I had met in person. Of course, I was staring. I had to give an explanation as to why, because Lenalee seemed to notice me staring.

" Allen?" I looked towards him slowly.

" Yeah, what is it Leo?" He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to ask.

" Is she your girlfriend." Another priceless look from Allen. I couldn't blame him, Komui had made it his mission in life to protect Lenalee from boyfriends and marriage.

Kind of an overboard mentality for a guy in the 19th century though, wasn't marriage the way most women got decent lives right now. There's being picky, then there's being crazy.

" Ahh! No, that's not it!" Was he imagining Komui as he said that? I think he was. Yeah, I'm an awful person, tormenting such a poor boy.

But something in Allen's behavior was concerning me. No, more like lack of behavior to be exact. After Miranda explained how she was the only one who noticed things were odd, I realized what was wrong with Allen.

He wasn't concerned that I had run away from home. The most he asked from me was how I got here. I simply replied that I had been traveling to avoid the Earl. With a nod, he'd just accepted it.

Had he been so busy trying to get to the Order that he hadn't bothered to check on me? Apparently, because he became much more interested in the current situation with Miranda then me being a runaway. I couldn't say which was the weirder occurrence. Allen's assumptions that everything in my life had been fine and dandy, or my sudden negative emotion towards his actions. I've been having the occasional on/off emotion every so often, so maybe Allen's actions were the more surprising.

But then again, I hadn't wanted him meddling in my life. I shouldn't be upset over something that ultimately runs in my favor. In fact, he might pester me if he thought I was upset about something. That thought made me focus my attention elsewhere, it landed on Miranda.

" Please! Help! Help me! At this rate, I'm going to lose my mind!" She cried in her usual terrifying manner.

She grabbed Allen by the hands. I think Allen was starting to visibly cry as well.

" Miranda, they'll help. I told you, Allen helped me before. He just needs time to help now." I cut her off from her screaming.

Miranda seemed to try and compose herself after I said that. Did she really start placing that much trust in me?

" Lenalee, take Leo and Miranda and leave the bar right now." Allen said looking behind him.

Oh, right. There where deadly Akuma behind us. I had forgotten. Lenalee grabbed both Miranda and I right as Allen mentioned that the Akuma noticed Miranda was different from the others.

I highly doubted that. It was most likely that the Akuma saw to highly suspicious Exorcists taking to a person, then decided that she was special. The uniforms, Uniforms damn it! I didn't -rather could say anything as Lenalee jumped off us. She unintentionally winded me when she grabbed me by the stomach.

The only thing I could hear now was Miranda crying hysterically, once again.

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><p>I hope you know that I really do like Allen as a character! I think Leo likes him as much as he can like anyone in his current state. But maybe he's right that Allen has to much on his plate to be attempting to help someone like Leo. I mean, Leo has a rebirth crisis and a mysterious angry stalker on his tail.<p>

Please, leave a comment on this story. Tell me what you think of it. And thank you to all the people who read this story!


	11. The Rewinding City, Part 3

What's there to say after Lenalee brought Miranda and I back to the apartment? I suppose nothing really changed much from the manga here. Miranda key necklace fell off of her neck, resulting in Miranda panicking and falling off of the table to get in.

" Don't worry, she's never hurt anyone before." I told Lenalee who had also received a shock from Miranda's antics.

" She just surprised me, that's all." Lenalee reassured me.

" But it's true, right Miranda? For all your problems, you've never harmed anyone at all?"

Miranda looked up from the key, and for a slight moment I worried that I might have said something that crossed a line.

" Yes, you're right Leo. I've never harmed anyone. A miracle really, given the circumstances." She sighed, and went to go clean the grandfather clock in as it chimed.

It wasn't until Allen came back with a scratched up leg that I realized I had changed something in the story. Miranda hadn't told Lenalee that the clock was the only she felt accepted her. Did me changing the subject cause the story to change? I hadn't even tried to do that. Was it a bad that I did?

" It was really strange because they definitely wanted to kill me."Allen winched as Lenalee began cleaning Allen's wound.

I was watching Timcanpy, who appeared to be taking great pleasure in poking Allen's wound with his tail. Who knew the golem had such a nasty streak to him. Lenalee seemed more concerned with Allen's physical well-being at the moment though. Strange, given that Akuma behaving in a bizarre manner should give mostly anyone cause for concern.

" But I'm glad you're okay." She brushed Timcanpy aside to clean Allen's wound. " It's too dangerous for you to face that many level 2 Akuma yet."

That statement felt odd to me. Lenalee might have been at the Order longer than Allen, but I doubted she had any sort of system to rate an exorcists power. In fact the only character I'd ever read about doing that was Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter. Actually, all the Hunters were like that to a degree. But Lenalee? Scratch that, any exorcist? I highly doubted she, or any of the other exorcists for that matter, can clearly gauge the power levels of anyone else. Which made me realize I'd probably needed to devise a system myself in order to keep on my toes in the future.

All the while Allen and Lenalee began to discuss Allen's powers. I walked over to Miranda, uninterested in where the exorcists conversations were heading. I considered the merits of a power rating system as I did so. The Millennium Earl would have to be at the top, he'd be the representative of 100 in my scale. So who would be at the bottom? Who'd represent 0? Truth be told, that would be tricky. Raw power was well and good, but your intellect could make you dangerous as well. Look at the Hitler ripoff, he's dangerous but doesn't have any supernatural powers to speak of.

I stopped behind Miranda.

" I think the clocks clean now." She'd begun cleaning after Allen had come back to the apartment.

" I know, it's just..." She didn't take her eyes off the clock.

" It's not your fault, I'm sure. Lenalee said that Innocence is causing this problem of yours." I was all I could do just then to remember that I technically didn't remember all the previous October 9th's.

Then Miranda went into one of her depressive speeches, probably scaring the other two exorcists in the room. But Allen calmed himself rather quickly, and bent down Miranda's level. All nice and touching really, asking her for help and all, but I had other things to worry about. That being time was going to rewind in a few moments, I had to act the part again.

I suppose I should tell you how this whole resetting thing worked for me. Well, Miranda was usually in bed before the clock ever hit it's rewinding time. That meant I'd never seen her bizarre possessed walk to the bed like what she began to do just then. Not wanting to be grabbed by one of the other exorcists, I walked with Miranda as if confused by her behavior. I even shook her shoulder when she laid down for dramatic effect, as if I was puzzled by what she was doing.

The next thing I know, I'm waking on the couch. There's never been any crazy whirlwind of time sweeping me to where ever. Personally I'm glad for that, being tossed around like a rag doll was something I can do without. I sat up after I heard Miranda speak.

" Huh? I don't remember getting into bed..."

I looked up sleepily, letting myself look as though I was still trying to process what was going on. Allen and Lenalee's shocked faces were staring back at me. Now I had to play my part for them too. I'd already decided on a good way to react to them.

" How you get in here!" Was the outburst they got for the next couple of days. Followed by cries of robbers and all around uncontrolled panic. I have to hand it to myself, for someone with the emotional range of a caterpillar, I sure could pretend that I was genuinely scared. And I made a good job of doing that act every day that time rewound too, they never were very good at dealing with me.

It was about the fifth day that the exorcist's had arrived to help Miranda now. Since she'd gotten the job in the play with the Witch and the Pumpkin, I had a strong belief that this would be the day we'd meet Road head on.

When the break hit I had taken to eavesdropping on the two by curling up behind a box near them, deciding that preventing the robbery would ultimately be counterproductive. Neither exorcist every bothered to check to see if someone was listening in on them. Pretending to be in the time loop was getting taxing, and I didn't know how long I could fool Allen and Lenalee. Little did I know that needn't had worried about working very hard to fool them. In the original manga, Allen and Lenalee had talked about their childhood. But as I listened in, I found out that they were talking about me.

" So you've met Leo before, Allen?" Lenalee casually questioned him.

" Yeah, he'd asked me for help with the Millennium Earl." Allen then proceeded to recount what he remembered about the meeting.

It was odd hearing about how Allen had seen the situation. He seemed to think that I genuinely was scared by the Earl targeting me. Well, I wasn't happy about the situation but we all know how me and fear work in this world. Then I heard how he had left John and I.

" His friend John managed to get help from one of Leo's relatives to carry him back home. I would have stayed to visit him, but Timcanpy wanted me to leave as soon as possible." He told Lenalee.

Then finally, the question I had been dreading was asked by Lenalee herself.

" Wait, if he was living with his relatives then what is he doing here by himself."

Yes, Lenalee was stated by the author to be the smartest character in the series. But Allen surprisingly had an answer to this question. It baffled me to think how he had come to this conclusion.

" He hasn't said it, but I think there might have been something wrong with where he was living. Maybe they abandoned him after the trouble he caused."

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Allen, aren't you a little hasty to be making those kinds of assumptions about people!

" How can you be sure?" Lenalee asked, but her voice told me she was already starting to believe what Allen was saying.

" Just the way he carries himself. It's as if the world has pushed him to the side and he's trying to make the best of it." he told her.

Well, I might be able to agree with what Allen was saying in terms of how me and the world were working at the moment. But really, was he just going to jump to conclusions without even asking me? I put a hand to my face as Lenalee agreed with Allen. There you go folks, the main characters decided I was and abandoned orphan without any sort of fact checking.

" Ah! Hey... Mr. Pumpkin!" That would be Road calling to Allen, best for me to make myself scarce.

I waited until both Allen and Lenalee left the alley before I made my own way back to Miranda. All the while thinking about what had been said about me. Changing the story is odd, that's all I can really say about it. Allen and Lenalee should have been talking about Lenalee and her brother back there, not me. Did that somehow leave Allen at a disadvantage for the rest of the story? Was that information needed? Nothing came to mind at the moment, but maybe it would be important. There was no telling what could happen now. There was Allen, reassuring Miranda that he'd get the money back before chasing the culprit.

" Miranda! Are you okay!?" I cried, running over towards her.

She didn't answer me, seeming to depressed to come up with a response. Then suddenly she began to rant out loud, loud enough that a certain Noah girl could clearly hear. I back off slightly, not knowing what to do. Road walked over and bent down, looking pleasantly pleased that she had found what she'd been looking for.

" So you clock is the Innocence."

It might have been the smile she wore, or the tone of her voice. Maybe the fact she'd ignored me helped as well. I can't be sure what really set me off. All I could tell you was that I kicked Road Kamelot, the eldest Noah next to the Millennium Earl in the face. So much for self-preservation...

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><p>How goes it, been busy over the Christmas break. Hope everyone else had a good Christmas and New Years.<p> 


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